My Favorite 3 Middle-Eastern Restaurants in Sydney

It should come as no surprise that middle-eastern food is my favorite cuisine! And everyone who knows me knows I love a good feed.

Coming from Chicago to Sydney, Sydney had a lot to live up to and had a lot of proving to do when it came to the eating scene. Chicago has some of the BEST steakhouses in the world. Yes, you read that right- in the world.

I was pleasantly surprised that a lot of the restaurants I went to in Sydney were really good, but Sydney’s middle-eastern restaurants are on another level. I’ve never in my life had such good authentic Arab cuisine unless I was back in the motherland, Syria. I traveled to Lebanon in 2015 and honestly their food was comparable to Sydney’s. You could even say the Lebanese eateries here are a touch better.

I made it a goal of mine to take my parents to as many Arab restaurants as I could when they were in town during the Christmas/New Year period and they were just blown away! My dad literally ate at this one restaurant three times! He’s a food critic and so he should be because he’s the BBQ king…literally.

So without further adieu here are my favorite top three middle-eastern restaurants in Sydney!

Talk about Lebanese goodness! It’s authentic and mouthwateringly delicious. We usually go in groups and get the banquet because it has a mix of everything. You can’t go wrong with anything on their menu, no joke. But, if you’re making me choose my absolute favorites it would have to be the chicken skewers, the sambousik, the kibee, the fried potatoes, baba ganouj and fattoush. I could’ve named more, but I’ll stop there. They have quite a few locations, but my favorite one is in Alexandria.

So for those of you that don’t know, I’m Assyrian and my parents were born in Syria. So we had to try out this Syrian restaurant and it did not disappoint. This is the restaurant my dad came to three times in the same week! He was blown away by the quality of the food. The food reminded him of being back in his old village at one of the restaurants in Homs or Damascus. He fell in love. =] The interior decor reminds you of being in a royal place, it’s opulent and over the top, but I just can’t get enough of it. Now, there’s one dish that I order all the time and cannot ever have enough of and that’s the chicken shawarma. Oh my lawd…it was a party in my mouth with every bite I took. The garlic sauce that comes with it is just the cherry on top. I could lather myself in garlic sauce FYI.

La Mono was the first Lebanese restaurant that I tried when I came to Sydney and i’ve always had a soft spot for it. It’s quick and easy so it makes it perfect for a nice takeaway lunch or dinner when you’re really craving some juicy charcoal chicken with french fries and garlic sauce or should I say “hot chips” as the Aussies do. You can’t go wrong with their charcoal chicken and their chicken shawarma- two of my faves! They have a whole bunch of locations and ordering beforehand if picking up is a MUST because they can get packed.

Let me know if you guys try any of these and what the verdict is, but i’m pretty suuuuure you won’t be disappointed!